Man hit with fan during heated fight at Brooklyn shelter: police

A 61-year-old man was injured when he was attacked by another shelter resident with a fan, officials said. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)

That's one way to cool an argument.

A man bashed his rival in the head with a portable fan inside a troubled Brooklyn homeless shelter, police said Tuesday.

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Benjamin Mansfield, 37, fought with the man a few hours before the alleged assault late Sunday night inside the Camba Opportunity House shelter on Prince Street in Fort Greene.

The 61-year-old victim suffered a minor injury, cops said.

Mansfield is charged with assault, weapons possession, menacing, harassment and resisting arrest. A judge ordered him released without bail Monday afternoon.

In August, Camba resident Carl Massac, 64, died after a fistfight inside the shelter, authorities said.

A 36-year-old man was taken into custody, but the Brooklyn District Attorney declined to prosecute after witnesses said Massac started the fight by going after the younger man with an exercise weight. The man defended himself and Massac died in the fracas, a law enforcement source said.

Former residents told the Daily News of repeated complaints to building managers about threats of violence.

Among them was Sherman Jackson, 70, a who was once a press secretary for several city officials who lived in the shelter system for a year before getting his own apartment in August.

An email to the city Department of Homeless Services requesting comment about the Sunday night attack was not immediately returned.